Hot Fuzz is one of those rare cinema gems that delivers on every level making me realize just how disappointing comedies have become lately. I mean, it’s pretty sad when the unimaginative, un-funny Blades of Glory is tops at the box office several weeks in a row. Mention the title Hot Fuzz and all you’ll get is a blank stare since few people seem to have heard of it this side of the pond. But I can guarantee you’ll get far more bang for your entertainment buck by seeing this satiric spoof than any other comedy this year.

British duo Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright have worked a movie miracle in the past by bringing us the unrelentingly awesome Shaun of the Dead which spoofed one of my favorite things, zombies. So how do you top a witty, bloodbath comedy about the undead? With a witty, bloodbath comedy about cops! Taking its inspiration from the millions of cop buddy movies Hollywood seems to crank out, Hot Fuzz dissects the action movie genre and exposes its most ridiculous clichés. The premise is simple: Take the brashness of American cop movies and set it in small town England.

Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is a tough cop from London who gets shipped off to a quiet town because he’s making the rest of the force look bad. When he arrives he finds a sleepy town with a police force that is just as sleepy. His new partner Danny (Nick Frost) is an overgrown child whose father, (Jim Broadbent) the chief of police, thinks punishment as getting your “just desserts”. Literally. Raised on over-the-top action films Danny immediately idolizes Nick and continuously hounds him with ridiculous questions such as “Is it true that there’s a point on a man’s head where, if you shoot it, it will blow up?” or “Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?”

But of course things aren’t as they seem in the model village and as the suspicious death toll rises, Nick seems to be the only one who isn’t willing to pass them off as unfortunate accidents. With a town inhabited by dozens of eccentric characters nobody is beyond suspicion.

Hot Fuzz does a great job of slowly establishing characters and motives, showcasing the fabulous supporting cast rounded out by familiar faces such as Bill Nighy and Timothy Dalton. Dalton was inspired casting as a conniving grocery store owner who calls himself “the Slasher – of prices!” He plays a villain with total moustache-twirling abandon.

But once the “shit gets real” things turn to utter mayhem with an explosive, action packed second act that rivals the biggest blockbusters of the summer. The great thing is that the script remains just as sharp and clever through the action scenes as in the setup. This movie does an awesome job of lining up the jokes early on and then knocking them down like bowling pins by the finale.

I loved everything about this movie and thought it was almost perfectly executed. I think I’ll be hard pressed to find a better comedy for a long time to come, especially if I have to rely on Hollywood to provide one for me.